Crack the Customer Code

Adam and Jeannie share tips for gauging your organization’s CX success.

If you’re joining us today, your organization is either customer-focused or taking steps to deliver a better overall experience in the future. But there’s no universal road map, itinerary or outline to get you to true customer-centricity.

And while they are certainly a part of it, CX success is about much more than simply eliminating bad experiences, creating better ones, and sprinkling in a few moments of delight. It’s not about creating a catchy mission statement and repeating mantras like “our customers come first!” A truly customer-centric organization walks the talk, from the c-suite out to the front line and beyond.

Is your organization creating landmarks on the path to customer-centricity, or simply reveling in positive points of interest that don’t improve the overall experience? There are many twists and turns along the way, and many stops to make, but Adam and Jeannie are giving you a compass to keep you from losing your way. Listen in for 3 tips you can use today!

• 360Connext® post, How to Make Customer Experience Magic with Co-Creation Sessions (part 1)
• Customers That Stick® post, How Employee Empowerment Really Works
• Episode 193: Amy Downs, Customer Success
• Episode 094: Joseph Michelli, Becoming Customer-Obsessed
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Jeannie is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) who has held highly engaging Customer Experience Mission workshops for larger audiences, and customized ones for clients with outstanding results. Sign up to learn how to start your own Customer Experience Mission for free!

• Make your mission statement meaningful both to customers and employees
• Ensure customer-facing employees meet and exceed expectations
• Turn ordinary processes into a conduit for your mission
• Steps for creating a mission your team will be proud to get behind

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie shares tips for recognizing and eliminating CX-defeating phrases from your organization.

One of the things we love about customer experience is that subtle changes can make a big difference. Have you considered the language your team uses around the workplace? Cursing invites its own set of problems, but common everyday phrases we don’t notice can tear our customer experiences apart at the seams.

Today I ask you to look and listen for the things that defeat us in our own organization." -Jeannie Walters

There are many CX-defeating phrases that slip right into normal communications, causing emotional distress, negative outlooks, and normalizing poor experiences. A cancer in your workplace culture, they snuff out your efforts to improve customer experience, offer better service, and maintain a winning team.

Are these CX-defeating phrases infecting customer interactions or internal communications? Jeannie has some tips to help you recognize these phrases, address them, and replace them with language that’s conducive to the great experiences you want to deliver.

• 360Connext® post, Do Your Communication Tactics Undermine Your Intentions?
• Customers That Stick® post, Customer Communication Should Be for Customers
• Episode 217: Jill Schiefelbein, Dynamic Communication
• Episode 073: Hacking Your Workplace Culture
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Jeannie is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) who has held highly engaging Customer Experience Mission workshops for larger audiences, and customized ones for clients with outstanding results. Sign up to learn how to start your own Customer Experience Mission for free!

• Make your mission statement meaningful both to customers and employees
• Ensure customer-facing employees meet and exceed expectations
• Turn ordinary processes into a conduit for your mission
• Steps for creating a mission your team will be proud to get behind

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie discuss engineering happiness for true success with Mo Gawdat, author of Solve for Happy.

We often think to ourselves that if we get what, where or who we want in our lives, we’ll be happy. We look to successful individuals, and they seem so happy to us!

“You’re happy when the events of life meet your expections of how life should be.” -Mo Gawdat

But correlation is not necessarily causation where success and happiness intersect. Why is it, as humans, we’re never quite as happy as we thought we’d be once get what we want?

As an engineer, our guest Mo Gawdat sought to research, understand and solve this problem after a tragedy involving his son. He observed that we often look to outside factors, the things we can’t control, to evaluate our own happiness. To make matters worse, we often cling to things we can control, like worries, sadness and emotional pain.

“Happiness is inside you. It’s never to be found outside you.” -Mo Gawdat

Through touching stories and extensive research, Mo shares how he overcame his own sadness and used it as a catalyst for positive change. What is your equation for happiness? How can you apply this to the intersection of success and happiness for your customers?

Listen in to bring success to your happiness, and happiness to your success.

Highlights from the interview:

• How does an engineer end up writing a book about happiness? [3:15]
• Why must we solve happiness, rather than simply find it? [6:00]
• How does Mo’s approach inspire innovation, and ultimately, happiness, for customers? [8:15]
• How does social comparison factor into the happiness equation? [11:15]
• Mo describes how his tragedy became a catalyst for positive change. [14:45]
• Mo reveals ways we unconsciously choose to sabotage our own happiness. [18:30]
• What’s the purpose behind the #10MillionHappy hashtag? [21:30]

As Google [X]’s Chief Business Officer, his team is responsible for exploring “moonshot” dreams like the much-lauded self-driving car and providing global internet access by using sub-orbital balloons. For being at the top of a "dream team" though, Mo realized in 2001 that he was miserably unhappy and spirits were far from sailing above the clouds. So he did the one thing he knew how to do better than anything: he put his engineering experience to work and, by using data and research, he created an algorithm and “solved” happiness.

Thirteen years later, Mo’s algorithm would be put to the ultimate test. After the sudden, senseless death of his son Ali, Mo and his family turned to his equation which saved them from the depths of despair. With a new sense of purpose and a drive to honor his son's memory he began the #10MillionHappy Mission designed to make at least that many people realize that happiness is within their control. 

Connect with Mo

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Mo’s Book, Solve for Happy

• 360Connext® post, Why Enlightened Leadership Is Key to Customer Experience
• Customers That Stick® post, Keep Stepping to Succeed with Joy Marsden
• Episode 138: Becky Spohn, Professional Confidence Builder
• Episode 164: Doug Sandler, Nice Guys Finish First
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Do you know how to deliver the superior customer experience you visualize? We can help your team become a force for positive change, starting with a customer-centric mission. The Customer Experience Investigators™ at 360Connext specialize in helping companies across industries and around the globe. Developing and internalizing unique and scalable customer-focused missions has been crucial to their success.

Want to compete with the other 89% of companies staying afloat by providing better experiences? You need a compass for making astounding changes in the customer experience while breaking down the silos that are holding you back. We offer evaluations, workshops, and roadmaps to keep your wheels firmly planted on the road to a customer-centric future. Join us on our mission To Create Fewer Ruined Days for Customers™ today. Visit us at 360Connext.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie report from Medallia’s Experience-17 conference to discuss common challenges and benefits of instilling culture throughout organizations.

Creating or shifting culture is not easy in any company, and in larger organizations, it’s an enormous feat. But as we’ve learned from amazing sessions at the Experience-2017 conference, (for which Adam and Jeannie were provided tickets by Medallia,) this is changing!

"Changing the organization to be better for customers is a huge culture shift." - Jeannie Walters

Big brands like Delta, Comcast and more, are realizing culture (or lack of) shows through processes, manuals, and policies, and has a direct impact on the experience delivered.

"Culture is going to tell when there’s no playbook.” - Adam Toporek

In this special on-location report, Adam and Jeannie share takeaways from brands who get it and what they’re doing about it, along with a few tips you can use today.

• 360Connext® post, How to Unlock Your Outstanding Service Culture for Good
• Customers That Stick® post, Turning a Customer Service Culture
• Medallia’s Experience-17 Conference
• Episode 193: Amy Downs, Customer Success
• Episode 073: Hacking Your Workplace Culture
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam shares tips for leveraging the wisdom of your team as internal consultants to gain powerful customer-focused insights.

There’s no doubt that gaining the true outside-in perspective often means bringing in a consultant, but what if you can’t do that right now? What if you’re not sure where to start?

Your team has more insight to share from the customer’s perspective than you may know, and they’ve got lots to tell you. Why not tap into the wisdom of your team to uncover common challenges, high impact experience gaps, and more?

Your team may not be able to give you a complete outside-in evaluation, recommendations, training, or action plan like consultants such as our hosts, Adam and Jeannie…but the insight needed to uncover and fix some of your customers’ biggest challenges may be right under your own roof.

With a little elbow grease, you’ll have a whole new outlook on your customer experience and your organization. Use these insights to make improvements your customers will notice right away! (And, doing some internal investigative work will help maximize your ROI when you do decide to bring in a consultant.)

How can you activate your internal consultants? What should you ask them about, and how can you follow through with the initiative? Adam has some tips you can use today!

• 360Connext® post, Where Are Your Customer Advocates Hiding Out?
• Episode 182: (Tip) Advocating for Customers
• Episode Episode 007: Communicating Internally, Stan Phelps, and The Audience Experience
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie discuss balancing innovation around the needs of the future customer with those of the present customer at Medallia’s Experience-17 conference.

Brands are investing a lot in tailoring future customer experiences for the new generation, and we saw many examples at Experience-17. Millennials are the larger of the current generations, so this is important!

But millennials aren’t the only group to consider, and they do things much differently than previous generations. What works for them may not work as well for Gen X’ers, and may not work at all for Baby Boomers.  

The best brands find ways to create experiences that make younger customers more comfortable while still offering the experiences older generations are accustomed to. 

Can you innovate around the future customer without alienating the current customer? Should you? Thanks to Medallia for providing tickets to Experience-17, we bring you fresh examples, pro tips and fun facts from the conference. 

• 360Connext® post, Mobile Innovation Is Not About Your Phone!
• Customers That Stick® post, 5 Millennial Traits to Improve Customer Service
• Medallia’s Experience-17 Conference
• Episode 155: Don’t Forget the Baby Boomers
• Episode 142: Anna Liotta, Unlocking Generational Codes
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie report from Medallia’s Experience-17 conference to bring you insights from MGM’s outstanding multi-brand consistency.

We talk a lot about how to close the gaps between the experiences we offer, but what about the experience gaps we create between connected brands?

Each brand may consistently deliver an excellent experience on it own, and that’s great!  However, brands like MGM have achieved amazing results from creating consistency across multiple brands. And, thanks to Medallia for providing tickets to Experience-17, Adam and Jeannie are delighted to bring you insights from some of these great leaders.

Today, we're sharing secrets from top brands who have mastered the art of multi-brand consistency. Whether it’s a family of companies under the same ownership, or a group of affiliated organizations, bridging the gaps between them helps customers take their loyalty to a higher level.

What does it take to unify the experiences between your brands, or affiliates? Listen in for tips you can use today!

• 360Connext® post, Emotion Wins the Battle: Why Branding Still Matters
• Medallia’s Experience-17 Conference
• Episode 130: Chloë Thomas, Customer Manipulation
• Episode 036: Goodsnitch, Jennifer Maldonado, and Customer Experience Gaps
• Featured in the show: MGM Resorts International
• Mentioned in the show: Lettuce Entertain You
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Jeannie is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) who has held highly engaging Customer Experience Mission workshops for larger audiences, and customized ones for clients with outstanding results. Sign up to learn how to start your own Customer Experience Mission for free!

• Make your mission statement meaningful both to customers and employees
• Ensure customer-facing employees meet and exceed expectations
• Turn ordinary processes into a conduit for your mission
• Steps for creating a mission your team will be proud to get behind

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeannie shares tips for using insight from former customers to improve the experience for current and future customers.

We thrive on customer feedback to continue improving service and the overall experience, but what about those who are leaving us? Whether it’s because we don’t like to think about them, or because we don’t see the value in communicating with those who will not pay us, we lose sight of former customers.

Those former customers are still valuable, but it’s not because we can try to win them back. They can provide a wealth of insights into why customers are leaving, where the customer journey needs more attention, and how to innovate for the future.

“Dig in and see what’s going on before losing more customers for the same reasons.” - Jeannie Walters

Have you considered the value of your own former customers, or are they just out of the picture? Why not leverage this resource for feedback, suggestions, and insights for improving the experience for current and future customers?

To get the most out of what former customers can offer, Jeannie has some tips you can use today!

• 360Connext® post, Surveys Results are Great, but What About the “Untold” Feedback?
• Customers That Stick® post, Understanding the Other Side of a Bad Customer Experience
• Episode 096: Jay Baer, Hug Your Haters
• Episode 167: Signs You’re Losing a Customer
• We're on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Jeannie is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) who has held highly engaging Customer Experience Mission workshops for larger audiences, and customized ones for clients with outstanding results. Sign up to learn how to start your own Customer Experience Mission for free!

• Make your mission statement meaningful both to customers and employees
• Ensure customer-facing employees meet and exceed expectations
• Turn ordinary processes into a conduit for your mission
• Steps for creating a mission your team will be proud to get behind

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Change your perspective and approach at communication with Jill Schiefelbein, author of Dynamic Communication.

We communicate a lot in business, and in many ways, business is actually built on communication. But in our efforts to craft the right message while transferring the right information, our communications work against us.

“Unless my words are producing direct action or change, I don’t think they’re successful.” - Jill Schiefelbein

All day long, we’re communicating with customers, prospects, colleagues, and bosses. So what should we communicate, how and when? How can we communicate in ways that not only convey information, but lead to action?

“People do not make decisions based on information. People make decisions based on knowledge.”-Jill Schiefelbein

Today’s guest Jill Schiefelbein explains her amazing approach at communication, and how you can use it to inspire real action. Sharing highlights from her book and real-life stories, learn how Jill’s principles can turn your words into action.

You'll never communicate with your boss, your co-workers, or your customers the same way again. Listen in!

Highlights from the interview:

• What is dynamic communication, and how is it different? [3:30]
• Jill explains the Uncertainty Reduction Theory, and how it impacts the customer experience. [ 5:30]
• What does the word “panopticon” have to do with the customer experience? [10:45]
• How does the Listening Matrix apply to sales and customer service? [15:35]
• Jill explains how to level the power field to communicate up, down, and laterally. [21:10]

Jill Schiefelbein is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and recovering academic. She taught business communication at Arizona State University for 11 years before venturing into entrepreneurship. Jill’s business, The Dynamic Communicator®, helps organizations increase sales and create consumer advocates. Jill runs the Dynamic Accelerator program, helping solo- and micro-entrepreneurs accelerate business growth. Her latest book, Dynamic Communication: 27 Strategies to Grow, Lead, and Manage Your Business hit stores in March of 2017.

Connect with Jill

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Order Jill’s book, Dynamic Communication

• 360Connext® post, Do Your Communication Tactics Undermine Your Intentions?
• Customers That Stick® post, Communication: The Most Important Skill in Customer Service
• Episode 211: Marcus Sheridan, They Ask, You Answer
• Episode 168: Nate Brown, Service Center Engagement
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Do you know how to deliver the superior customer experience you visualize? We can help your team become a force for positive change, starting with a customer-centric mission. The Customer Experience Investigators™ at 360Connext specialize in helping companies across industries and around the globe. Developing and internalizing unique and scalable customer-focused missions has been crucial to their success.

Want to compete with the other 89% of companies staying afloat by providing better experiences? You need a compass for making astounding changes in the customer experience while breaking down the silos that are holding you back. We offer evaluations, workshops, and roadmaps to keep your wheels firmly planted on the road to a customer-centric future. Join us on our mission To Create Fewer Ruined Days for Customers™ today. Visit us at 360Connext.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adam and Jeannie discuss how to get the best results when you complain as a customer.

We talk a lot about how to handle customer complaints, but we’re switching it up a bit today!

We’ve all had those experiences that leave us so steamed, we just want to unload a verbal clip on the next employee who comes our way. But there’s a big difference between getting actual support and just getting your way from service reps, managers and supervisors. 

Though most of us prefer to do business with companies that “get it,” sometimes it’s not practical to stop patronizing the drug store right around the corner or the cable provider we’re contracted with. If the overall experience still works for us, there are ways to make the parts that don’t more bearable, or even inspire positive change.

The sad truth is, not every company we deal with is as customer-focused as we are. So how can we get the best results, without making a bad experience worse? How can we stand up for ourselves without creating tense relationships for the long-term?

We don’t need to walk on egg shells with companies that don’t provide a good experience, but applying a few customer-centric practices to advocate for ourselves can help them see the value in listening to us and maintain healthy relationships.

Working towards better experiences for everyone is sometimes a two-way street, and just expecting reps to “take it” from us is not part of the recipe. Adam and Jeannie have some great tips to help you complain in ways that help create better experiences all around. Listen in!

• 360Connext® post, 3 Ways to Win Big When Customers Are Furious
• Customers That Stick® post, How to Be a Good Customer: 16 Ways to Not Be a Jerk
• Episode Episode 001: Apple Store Lady, Jackie Huba, and Heathrow Airport
• 198: (Tip) No Cost Ways to Please Unhappy Customers
• We’re on C-Suite Radio! Check it out for more great podcasts

Sponsor message:

Want to bring game-changing customer service training to your team? CTS Service Solutions offers a half-day in-person workshop designed to motivate and educate your customer-facing team members. Using energy, excitement, and interaction, our workshop helps frontline teams embrace a customer-centric outlook, then — using the principles from our book Be Your Customer’s Hero — gives them the skills and confidence they need to handle any service interaction. Don’t leave your frontline team hanging… Give them the training they deserve. Learn more at customerheroworkshop.com, that is customerheroworkshop.com.

Take care of yourself and take care of your customers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices